The Spider's Legs
by Aryam150
Summary: A myth of how spiders came to have eight legs.


Ok so here's a teeny tiny bit changed version of an assignment I did for high school. We were to make up a myth about how something was made or came to be, so I chose how a spider got eight legs. It's short and not all that great but, eh. Enjoy!

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Many years ago, in a world filled with the greenest trees, the brightest flowers, and sapphire waters, lived many animals; from bears, to wolves, to small beetles. One morning while the sun shone brightly in the sky all the animals were called to a meeting in a forest clearing. There in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by all the other animals, stood an old scruffy looking bear. It was the forest elder, Orso.

"My friends," he began, his voice filling the clearing. "I called this meeting because we have an urgent matter at hand. Grau has fallen ill." All the forest gasped.

"But it is his job to get the aryam see so that the lands will produce our food!" shouted a mouse.

"It was the spiders!" Everyone turned to look at the large brown owl that rested on a tree branch. "Grau was bitten by a spider. No doubt they planned it," he sneered.

Knowing that some spiders were poisonous, all the animals began to murmur accusingly amongst one another.

"Lies!" came a small yet firm voice. We spiders planned nothing of the sort."

"How do we know it isn't you who liessss, Aranha?" the snake hissed, venom dripping from the words and fangs of the serpent. "You sssspiderssss are awfully…devioussss."

"Enough!" Orso boomed. "We need someone willing to make Grau's journey. It is said that there is a rare moss that can cure any illness within the cave of the aryam see. The one who goes might be able to save Grau. I myself would go, but I am no longer the young warrior I used to be." All the animals were silent, knowing the perils one had to face in order to reach the cave of the aryam seed.

"I will go." Everyone looked at Aranha in surprise.

"You!?" laughed the weasel Itachi. "How could you get the aryam seed? You're small and very slow. You only have two legs." The other animals nodded in agreement.

"And yet he is the only one brave enough to go." Orso said wryly. This hushed tall the animals. "You must leave at once," he said taking the small creature in his huge, padded paw.

"I know." Aranha said, taking a deep breath before finishing. "I'm ready."

Aranha had set out right after the meeting in hopes of shortening the time it took to reach the cave and get back here to the forest. As he walked, he thought about many things but the one thing that would not stop pestering him was the way all the other animals had doubted him so. What had he done to make them feel that way? It was thoughts like this that kept him from noticing the raven flying just overhead, waiting to swoop in for a meal.

"Maybe the others think I don't like them. I don't usually join them when they talk and such. Maybe they feel I'm trying to ignore them, but that's not it at all." As more thoughts began to cloud Aranha's mind, he heard the shrill sound of the raven that was coming straight for him. Without thinking or looking where he was going, Aranha dove into a bush. After a few moments, he could no longer hear or see the hungry raven. Taking no chances, he clambered up the stem of the bush and peeked through the leaves.

Seeing no sign of danger in the sky, he climbed onto the leaves to enjoy the cool breeze that swayed the trees. With it came a fly, lazily flying around looking for a nice place to rest. Being that he hadn't eaten, Aranha planned on making a meal of the fly as soon as it landed. That, however, was quickly destroyed when the fly was consumed by one of the leaves. Noticing that they weren't leaves at all, but meat eating plants, Aranha quickly jumped off the leaf thankful that he could produce a safety line within the blink of an eye.

It had been two days since Aranha left the forest in search of the aryam seed and the moss to save Grau. He had been almost eaten on several occasions. It seemed that every bird and carnivorous plant out here was after him. Finally, after a few more hours of hobbling down a secluded path, Aranha saw the entrance to the cave in the distance. He scurried into the cave, only stopping when the golden light of the aryam seed could be seen. There it was; the small, oblong seed with its strong golden glow.

Suddenly remembering the other reason he was here, Aranha turned to the wall and saw the thick green moss clinging to the moist cave walls. The golden-green light seemed to radiate throughout his entire body. He took the aryam seed and as much moss as he could carry and put them all into a small sack made from his own silky thread. He mad his way back to the forest, the small sack carefully tied to his back.

Four days after the forest meeting, Aranha was back, carrying a small, dimly glowing sack. He went to find Orso so he could give him the moss and, hopefully, save Grau. As Orso tended to Grau Aranha noticed the wound.

"That is no spider bite. Only the fangs of a snake could do that." he said, glaring maliciously at the wound.

After treating Grau, Orso, and Aranha, along with the rest of the forest went and planted the aryam seed. Soon after planting it, a bright beam of light came from the sky and shone on the seed. Then, out of the beam appeared a beautiful red fox with nine tails.

"Aranha, you have shown great perseverance. You went to the cave of the aryam seed when no one else would dare. For that you shall be rewarded. With just your two legs you have shown courage, strength, wisdom, patience, tranquility, modesty, hope and pride. It is with these eight things that I grant you and the rest of your kind eight legs from this day forth."

It was with those last words that light enveloped Aranha and game him and the rest of his kind eight legs, which they still have to this day. Each leg symbolizes one of the ways Aranha was able to save Grau and bring pride back to his own kind.

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Thank you for reading and please review!


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